Issue 43 (December 2019)
Focus on: The future is today: libraries at the service of a changing society
Coordinators: Ciro Llueca (UOC) and Maite Comalat (UB)
Deadline for receiving originals: June 2019
Instructions for authors: /en/authors-guidelines
The capacity of libraries to adapt to change and meet the needs of their users has been a key element in their ability to evolve and remain a part of the day-to-day existence of their societies and institutions. As in other sectors, the enthusiastic integration of technologies has led to considerable improvements in services, something considered inconceivable a few decades ago. Today, this ability to adapt to change and anticipate needs has made libraries the undisputed stars of municipal culture: we enjoy the honour of being included in the political agenda.
However, numerous voices warn of the urgent need for reflection on this evolution and on the need to adapt quickly to new social changes that affect learning and public participation processes.
Skills traditionally associated with libraries which today are considered essential, such as the importance of autonomy in learning, critical awareness in the post-truth society, and literacy understood as the need to read different formats and mediums, have become uniquely relevant and place libraries in a new context of threat–opportunity: evolve or disappear.
Thus, learning the skills required to navigate a diverse society – with its different types of information, where ability to access information has to go hand in hand with the ability to select and interpret – should make libraries points of reference. They must not (or not solely) exist as physical spaces, but also as reliable, recommendable and recommended sources. The question is: Have we been able to generate platforms that, beyond simply meeting the goal of collecting information, are known, recognized and adopted by users? Have we provided the support needed by teachers to achieve their teaching aims? Have we spread the spirit of open access in our institutions?
Increasingly, knowledge is a shared experience and libraries must be able to offer the necessary spaces and resources for such knowledge to be generated. It is taken for granted that users occupy a central position, that they are the focus of attention around which all other elements revolve: the collection, space, services, personnel… but is this really the case? Do we think about these elements from their perspective? Do we gather their needs and assess their experiences to improve our services? Have we created proposals that meet users’ needs?
This issue aims to highlight these initiatives, where libraries work to contribute to a better informed and more participative society. Thus, we focus our attention on the opportunity that change in our society represents for libraries.
Texts on the following topics will be considered for publication:
• Rethinking new spaces: the library beyond its walls.
• Dynamics of working with other agents: sharing co-creation projects.
• Indicators for new needs: collecting data for new projects.
• Digital skills: the fight against fake news.
• Lifelong learning: services and products with impact.
• Universities and the Big Deal: coexistence or struggle.
• Digital fracture: the library as social agent.
• Data collection platforms: open access for knowledge generation.
• From bibliometrics to social transformation: how do we assess research?
• The professional growth of personnel at the service of libraries.
Creative Commons licence (Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative works). They may be consulted and distributed freely provided that the author and publisher are quoted (in accordance with the “Recommended citation” section in each of the articles). However, no derivative works (translation, change of format, etc.) may be made without the publisher’s permission. Therefore, it meets the definition of open access form the Budapest Open Access Initiative declaration. The journal allows the author(s) to hold the copyright without restrictions and to retain publishing rights without restrictions.